Matt Ritzert
St. Jane de Chantal Writing Group
“Come and see.” With three simple words, Jesus Christ invites us to enter into a personal relationship of discovery and transformation.
In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, we read about Jesus’s encounter with John the Baptist and two of the Baptist’s followers:
“The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God.’ The two disciples heard what he said and followed Jesus. Jesus turned, and saw them following, and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’ They said to him, ‘Rabbi’ (which translated means Teacher), ‘where are you staying?’ He said to them, ‘Come and you will see.’ So they went and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day. It was about four in the afternoon.” (John 1:35–39, NABRE)
These verses contain the first words spoken by Jesus in John’s Gospel. “What are you looking for?” “Come, and you will see.”
John has already been preaching in a mysterious and hopeful way about “a man is coming after me who ranks ahead of me because he existed before me” (John 1:30). Twice, John has proclaimed Jesus to be the “Lamb of God.” Now, two of his disciples encounter the “Lamb of God.”
John’s proclamations piqued the interest of his two disciples. They call him “Rabbi,” but Jesus is like no rabbi they’ve ever met before. Hoping to learn more, the men ask Jesus, “Where are you staying?” They want to get to know this man called Jesus and try to figure out what John’s been talking about. Jesus understands. He could have said, “I’m staying over there, by the river.” Jesus could have responded like a typical rabbi and launched into a long explanation about the coming of the Messiah. No, Jesus invited the men to “come and see.” The invitation “to come and see” called the men into action. It was like he was inviting the men into his home, to have dinner, to talk and get to know one another. It was an invitation to come and enter into a friendship.
They came and they saw. To see is more than to simply look. To see is to experience, explore, to understand. Jesus was not inviting the men to come and look at his campsite. Jesus desired that the men spend time with him so that they would see and understand. And what did they see and understand that transformed their lives? Maybe they looked into Jesus’s eyes, which communicated a love as pure as the waters of a mountain stream. Maybe he reached out and touched them with the warmth of a mother’s hand consoling her child. Maybe the Rabbi quoted Isaiah: “Pay attention and come to me. Listen that you may have life. I will make with you an everlasting covenant the steadfast loyalty promised to David” (Isaiah 55:3). Maybe Jesus drew his new friends close by the light of the campfire embers and closed the evening by praying the Shema, which begins with these words from Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4–5).
He was a complete stranger just a couple hours ago, but now they developed a mystical bond that would transform their lives. The journey that would lead the men to truly see the “Lamb of God” had just begun, but their hearts were now ready for the invitation to come and see. The burning flame dances and moves and cannot be grasped, but the men knew that flame would be the light to lead them to what they were looking for. And in the morning with hearts burning with a new love, they invited their family and friends to “come and see.”